Smart Phone

[was]

Looking to upgrade from a dying old flip phone to a new smart phone but I have no idea what to look for. Any suggestions? or recommendations?

 

[Morrus]

What are your priorities?

The biggest decision is iOS or Android. Both have their ardent supporters (but if someone is ardent about a phone operating system, you can probably not worry too much about their opinion on it!)

 

[was]

What are your priorities?

The biggest decision is iOS or Android. Both have their ardent supporters (but if someone is ardent about a phone operating system, you can probably not worry too much about their opinion on it!)

...My main priorities are reliability, sound quality and battery life. I'd also like email access and gps on it. Other than that, I really have no clue.

 

[Janx]

...My main priorities are reliability, sound quality and battery life. I'd also like email access and gps on it. Other than that, I really have no clue.

um... that's not really stuff people worry about much anymore.

The sound is likely 10 years ahead of what you had in a flip phone.

the battery is way better if all you do is talk on the smartphone, but if you do a ton of active smartphone stuff,it'll last a day at best.

and the reliability is mostly a factor of who your carrier is. Sprint and T-Mobile suck.

and they all have GPS and email with a choice of clients.


So mostly, your choice is iPhone that costs more, but is simpler/easier to use. For a bloke who came from flip phone, that might be up yer alley.

Or you can get Android which let's you customize the heck out of it for way less money, which a chap who's been happy with a cheap flip phone, might be your style.

What've your friends got? Look at those. Go with that, because they'll be the ones showing you how to use it

 

[was]

...The sound is likely 10 years ahead of what you had in a flip phone.

...Reliability is mostly a factor of who your carrier is. Sprint and T-Mobile suck.

...Your choice is iPhone that costs more, but is simpler/easier to use.

...What've your friends got? Look at those.

..I have been with Sprint since the late 90's. Reliability hasn't been an issue, but the sound quality is. I recently heard that might be because they tend to stretch their cell tower network pretty thin.

...My father got an iPhone 5 last year and switched from Sprint to Verizon. He is very happy with them and the phone. I was leaning towards the iPhone simply because of the fact that my 68 year-old father figured it out pretty quickly. That means there's hope for me.

...My brother, however, is a technophile and he keeps pushing the LG G4. He says it works well across all the carriers, has a ton of great apps and allows you to quickly (and relatively inexpensively) change the battery on your own if it runs down. It sounds a little over my head, but I'm not telling him that. I can't let my little brother get a swelled head by telling him that he's smarter than me.

 

[Morrus]

If someone is aggressively pushing a platform or device at you, and they don't have shares in the company, that's kinda weird (though very common these days).

That said, if anybody aggressively pushed one over the other to the point where it seems like they care which you choose, please trust me on this: ignore them. Their priority should be you, not their loyalty to a megacorp.

 

[Kramodlog]

I think it is a choice about which ecosystem you want. If you already have an iTunes account with lots of songs on it, iOS might be a better way to go. Android if you wanna go with stuff like chromecast and google music.

 

[Janx]

..I have been with Sprint since the late 90's. Reliability hasn't been an issue, but the sound quality is. I recently heard that might be because they tend to stretch their cell tower network pretty thin.

...My father got an iPhone 5 last year and switched from Sprint to Verizon. He is very happy with them and the phone. I was leaning towards the iPhone simply because of the fact that my 68 year-old father figured it out pretty quickly. That means there's hope for me.

...My brother, however, is a technophile and he keeps pushing the LG G4. He says it works well across all the carriers, has a ton of great apps and allows you to quickly (and relatively inexpensively) change the battery on your own if it runs down. It sounds a little over my head, but I'm not telling him that. I can't let my little brother get a swelled head by telling him that he's smarter than me.

Iphone is a good choice for folks who can afford it and aren't technophiles. I was just having a talk about the idea of handing old people iPads and not laptops just for the "can't screw it up" factor. There is not likely anything you can't do on iPhone that you would want/need to do. Both Android and iPhone have large catalogs of apps.

Battery-wise, the Androids almost always have a user changeable battery, where iPhone doesn't, but from my own usage from 3g to 4 to 5 t 6, my battery has always just been fine at the end of my rotation. I just sold my 5 to a friend and he's happy as can be with the battery (that's a 3 year old iPhone now). A counter to that is, for about $100, a shop in a larger town will replace an iPhone battery. Another friend of mine has done it himself for 3 generations for about $40 in parts.


I favor iPhone, but I've also got an Android phone for work. Take heed from Morrus on somebody who's a bit too gung ho about one system over the other.

 

[Umbran]

Battery-wise, the Androids almost always have a user changeable battery

Not anymore. I think my Samsung Galaxy S5 was the last Galaxy model with a changeable battery. My wife's Motorola Moto X, bought at the same time, does not have a user-changeable battery. So, there's two of the major makers right there going the way of the iPhone's planned obsolescence.

I wouldn't buy all the, "if you aren't a technophile, get an iPhone," talk. My wife is not a techie, and got on with her Android just fine. There may have been a time when Androids were hard to set up, but that is no longer.

If you are already using iTunes for music or media, then an iPhone is a no-brainer choice. If not, I think they're actually broadly equivalent, with the iPhone being slightly more expensive for what you get. You are unlikely to make a major mistake if you go with a major maker (Samsung, Motorola, LG, Apple, for example), and a major carrier. I went Android because I'm not an iTunes person, the phone was cheaper, screen slightly larger, and had a slightly better camera than the iPhone of the time.

Find a few friends with phones of various types. Have them walk you through use. Play with them, and see how they feel.